Nightwatch

«True,» Ignat said with a sigh, «but the boss persuaded me that I'd be more useful in the Watch. And that's right, isn't it?»

«I suppose so.»

«I'm bored already,» Ignat drawled thoughtfully. «Aren't you bored? I want to go back to work.»

«I think I do too. Ignat, have you got a hobby? Outside of work?»

«What are you interrogating me for?» he asked in surprise.

«I'm curious. Or is it a secret?»

«What secrets do we have?» Ignat asked with a shrug. «I collect butterflies. I've got one of the best collections in the world, It fills two entire rooms.»

«Very laudable,» I agreed.

«Come around sometime and take a look,» Ignat suggested. «Bring Sveta; she tells me she likes butterflies too.»

I laughed so long even Ignat got the point. He got up, smiling uncertainly, and muttered:

«I think I'll go help get breakfast ready.»

«Good luck,» was all I said. But I just couldn't help myself, and when our handsome Casanova reached the door, I called to him, «Listen, is the boss right to be worried about Svetka?»

Ignat propped his chin on his hand, striking a dashing pose, and thought for a moment.

«You know, I think he is. She's all tensed up somehow, just can't let go and relax. And she's got big things ahead of her, not like you and me.»

«You tried your best, did you?»

«What kind of question's that!» said Ignat, offended. «Come around, honest, I'd be glad to see you!»

The gin had turned warm, the ice in the glass had melted. There was a slight trace of lipstick left on the plastic. I shook my head and put the glass down.

Gesar, you can't foresee everything.

But to fight you, not in a duel of magic—that would be just plain ridiculous—to fight you in the only arena where I have a chance, in words and actions, I have to know what you want. I have to know how the cards lie in the pack. And what you're holding in your hand.

Who were the players?

Gesar, the originator and organizer. Olga, his lover and consultant, a sorceress who had been punished for some crime. Svetlana, who had to complete the project and was being prepared with great care. Me—one of the instruments of her education. Ignat, Tiger Cub, Semyon, and all the other Light Ones could be left out of my calculations. They were instruments too, but only secondary ones. And I couldn't count on them for support.

The Dark Ones?

Naturally, they were involved, but not in any obvious way. Zabulon and his henchmen were concerned about Svetlana's appearance in our camp. They couldn't do anything openly right now. But they could try to sabotage things on the sly or prepare a crushing blow that would bring the Watches to the brink of war.

What else?

The Inquisition?

I drummed my fingers on the armrest of the lounger.

The Inquisition. The structure that stood above the Watches. It reviewed disputes and punished those who had violated the Treaty—from either side. It was vigilant. It collected data on every one of us. But it intervened only in extremely rare cases, and its strength lay more in secrecy than in fighting power. When the Inquisition considered a case involving a powerful magician, it drafted fighters from the Watches.

But the Inquisition was involved somehow. I knew the boss. He squeezed the last drop out of every opportunity. And the recent business with Maxim, the maverick Other, the Light One who had gone to work in the Inquisition, was a good example. The boss had exploited the affair to train Svetlana and teach her the lessons of self-control and intrigue, but at the same time he'd discovered a new Inquisitor.

I wished I knew what they were preparing Svetlana for!

So far I was groping in the dark. And the worst thing of all was that the gap between me and Sveta was getting wider and wider. I put on the headphones and closed my eyes.

Tonight the fern will unfold its miraculous flower,

Tonight the spirits will come back home,

Clouds from the north, wind from the west,

Soon the enchantress will wave her hand to me.

I live waiting for a miracle, like a Mauser in its holster,

Like a spider in its web,

Like a tree in the desert,

Like a black fox in its hole.

I was taking a risk. I was taking a great risk. Great Magicians became great by trampling over their own kind, but even they didn't dare go against their own. Isolated individuals didn't survive.

I was ru

I wanted to sleep with a mermaid, but I didn't know how to act with her,

I wanted to turn into a streetcar and drive into your window.

The wind blows from the borderlands, we don't care anymore,

The wind blows from the borderlands, we don't care anymore.

Be my shadow, my squeaking stair, my bright-colored Sunday, my sunshine with rain,

Be my god, my birch-tree juice my electric current, my bent rifle.

I can bear witness that you are the wind, you blow in my face and I laugh,

I do not wish to leave you without a battle, since you dream of me.

Be my shadow…

I felt a hand on my shoulder.

«Good morning, Sveta,» I said and opened my eyes.

She was wearing shorts and a swimsuit. Her hair was wet and neatly arranged. She must have taken a shower. While I, being a filthy swine, hadn't even thought of taking one.

«How are you after yesterday?» she asked me.

«Okay. And you?»

«All right,» she said and turned away.

I waited. With Spleen playing in my earphones.

«What were you expecting from me?» Sveta asked sharply. «I'm a normal, healthy young woman. I haven't had a man since last winter. I realize you've got it into your head that Gesar threw us together, like coupling horses, so you're just being stubborn.»

«I wasn't expecting anything.»

«Then I'm sorry you got a surprise!»

«Did you sense my trail in the room? When you woke up?»

«Yes.» Svetlana pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket with a struggle and lit one. «I'm tired. Maybe I am still only learning, and not working yet, but I'm tired. And I came here to relax.»

«You were the one who started talking about everyone faking a good time…«

«And you were only too happy to back me up!»

«True,» I agreed.

«And then you went off to guzzle vodka and organize conspiracies.»

«What conspiracies?»

«Against Gesar. And against me, by the way. How absurd! Even I sensed it! Don't get the idea you're some great magician who can…«

She stopped short. But too late.

«I'm not a great magician,» I said. «I'm third grade. Maybe second, but no higher than that. We all have limits of our own that we can't go beyond, not even if we live for a thousand years.»

«I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you,» Svetlana said, embarrassed. She lowered the hand holding the cigarette.

«Forget it. I'm not offended. Do you know why the Dark Ones form families of their own so often , and we prefer to choose our wives and husbands from among ordinary people? The Dark Ones find it easier to bear inequality and constant competition.»

«A human being and an Other—that's even more unequal.»

«That doesn't count. We're two different species. That means nothing counts.»

«I want you to know,» said Svetlana, taking a deep drag on her cigarette, «that I wasn't intending to let things go so far. I was waiting for you to come down and see us and get jealous.»

«I'm sorry, I didn't know I was supposed to get jealous,» I said repentantly.

«And then everything just got crazy and I got carried away.»

«I understand everything, Sveta. It's okay.»

She looked at me in confusion.

«Okay?»

«Of course, it happens to everyone. The Watch is one big, tight-knit family. With all the consequences that follow from that.»

«What a bastard you are,» Svetlana exclaimed. «Anton, if only you could see yourself now from the outside! How did you ever end up on our side?»

«Sveta, you came to make up, didn't you?» I asked in surprise. «So I'm making up. It's all okay. Nothing counts. That's life; all sorts of things happen.»

She jumped up and glared icily at me for a second. I started blinking rapidly.

«You idiot,» Svetlana blurted out and went back into the house.

So what had I been expecting? Hurt feelings, accusations, sadness?

But more important, what had Gesar been expecting? What would change if I stopped playing the role of Sveta's ill-starred lover? Would someone else take on the role? Or was it already time for her to be left alone—all alone with her great destiny?

The goal. I had to know what Gesar's goal was.

I sprang up off the beach chair and walked into the house. I immediately spotted Olga, alone in the living room. Standing in front of the open display case, holding a sword with a long, narrow blade out in front of her. She wasn't looking at it the way you look at an antique toy. Tiger Cub probably looked at her swords in the same kind of way. But her love of old weapons was abstract and Olga's wasn't.

When Gesar came to live and work in Russia—because of her, by the way—swords like that might still have been in use.

But eighty years ago, when Olga had been deprived of all her rights, wars were already fought differently.

A former Great Sorceress. A former Great Goal. Eighty years.

«It's all so well pla

Olga started and swung round.

«We can't defeat the Darkness ourselves. The little people have to be enlightened first. Become kind and loving, industrious and intelligent. So that every Other can see nothing but the Light. What a great goal it was; how long the ripples lasted when it was drowned in blood.»

«You figured it out after all,» said Olga. «Or did you just guess?»

«I guessed.»

«Good. Now what?»

«How did you slip up, Olga?»

«I accepted a compromise. A little compromise with the Darkness. And because of that we lost.»

«We did? We'll always survive. Adapt, fit in, find our place. And we'll continue the old struggle. It's only people who lose.»

«Retreats are inevitable sometimes,» said Olga, gripping the double-handed sword easily in one hand and swinging it above her head. «Do I look like a helicopter with its engines idling?»

«You look like a woman waving a sword around. Do we really never learn anything, Olga?»

«Sure we do. This time everything's going to be different, Anton.»

«A new revolution?»

«We didn't want the last one. It was all supposed to happen almost completely without bloodshed. You understand: We can win only through ordinary people. When they become enlightened, when their spirit is uplifted. Communism was a wonderfully well-calculated system, and it's all my fault that it wasn't realized.»